Stem Cell Trickery

A postdoctoral research fellow at Emory University falsifies stem cell research data.

By Cristina Luiggi | July 9, 2012

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A former postdoc in the Department of Medicine at Emory University was found guilty of falsifying data presented at national and laboratory meetings, in ongoing and pending National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, and in manuscripts submitted to five high-profile journals, according to a report by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) published last Friday (July 6).

Sinae Kim, who joined the lab of Emory stem cell biologist Young-sup Yoon in 2008 after a 1-year stint as a postdoc at a university in Seoul, Korea, fudged immunocytochemistry images and real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results by using data she had obtained from her previous human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research in Korea to “confirm the generation, differentiation, and verification of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs),” the reported stated.

Among her transgressions, Kim shared mouse and human iPSC cell lines with some of her lab mates that had supposedly been generated from the peripheral blood of coronary artery disease patients, when in fact “she knew they were of other origin,” the report stated.

Comments

How can one (former) postdoc's (single-handed) falsifications affect so many (mentor's) grants, grant applications, manuscripts (to so many "top" journals), etc.?When were those five manuscripts submitted to Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, Science, and Blood? What were the reviewers and editorsâ€™ impressions on these manuscripts before the exposure of the misconduct?Â What measures can be really effective to prevent this and eliminate this?

A British pharmaceutical company is developing a medicine against diabetes and its symptoms, such as cardiovascular diseases and obesity based on marijuana.

The company GW Pharmaceuticals researchers have revealed that two components of the famous drug, Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) and cannabidiol, treatable diabetes of the second type because they can reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood and fat in organs, as, for example, in the liver.

Although it is known that cannabis produces a sensation of hunger when you smoke, these two components have the opposite effect: decreases appetite and protect the cells that produce insulin, making them work better.

Currently doctors carried out experiments with about two hundred patients and expect that the findings of the study are available at the end of this year.

"The effect on the rats was promising, components have improved metabolism of animals." Now we want to see how the new medicine influence human. "People use cannabis since hundreds of years ago why have much experience with this plant", said Stephen Wright, one of the authors of the study.

GW Pharmaceuticals is licensed for marijuana cultivation in greenhouses in southern England, although its exact location is kept a secret.

Source:RT.com11 Jul 2012 (07: 47: 56)A British pharmaceutical company is developing a medicine against diabetes and its symptoms, such as cardiovascular diseases and obesity based on marijuana.The company GW Pharmaceuticals researchers have revealed that two components of the famous drug, Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) and cannabidiol, treatable diabetes of the second type because they can reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood and fat in organs, as, for example, in the liver.Although it is known that cannabis produces a sensation of hunger when you smoke, these two components have the opposite effect: decreases appetite and protect the cells that produce insulin, making them work better.Currently doctors carried out experiments with about two hundred patients and expect that the findings of the study are available at the end of this year."The effect on the rats was promising, components have improved metabolism of animals." Now we want to see how the new medicine influence human. "People use cannabis since hundreds of years ago why have much experience with this plant", said Stephen Wright, one of the authors of the study.GW Pharmaceuticals is licensed for marijuana cultivation in greenhouses in southern England, although its exact location is kept a secret.Source:RT.com

In large , active research labs, often the persuit of research takes on an " assembly line" mentality- when a post Doc or ' expert" technician does his/ her part for an array of experiments, and another group of post-Docs plan ( or execute) resarch projects that are related to the main theme ( eg.Stem cells), assembling parts of the puzzle created by many ' expert technicians'. In such an assebbly line activity, the defective piece made by the fraudster affects several manuscripts and grants.